Clarke's imagination is prodigious, her pacing is masterly and she knows how to employ dry humor in the service of majesty.

Gregory Maguire, The New York Times Book Review

The book I wish I'd written.

R. F. Kuang, #1 New York Times bestselling author of BABEL and YELLOWFACE

A fiercely funny, beautiful writer, Clarke attacks her subject with the wit and craft of a Dickens or Austen, effortlessly mixing historical figures and events in with her magical ones. And that magic: nobody writes about magic the way Clarke does . . . She writes about magic as if she's actually worked it.

Lev Grossman, TIME Magazine

The writing is captivating, the characters charming, and the notion that perhaps there's more to reality than what our senses tell us is, as Clarke might say with a smile, simply enchanting.

NPR

Ms. Clarke's fertile imagination takes her readers to many a mysterious realm.

The New York Times

The most sparkling literary debut of the year.

Salon